Alternating rotary gearing for washing-machines.



0. G. PFEIFFER. ALTERNATING ROTARY GEARING FOR WASHING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.27,19II.

Patented Aug. 10,1915.

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0. e. PFEIFFERQ ALTERNATING ROTARY BEARING FOR WASHING MACHINES.

' APPLICATION FILED 050.21. 191? 1,14%283. Patented Aug. 10,1915.

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DTTO G. PFEIFFER, O'F SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, ASSIGNOB. T6 UTAHNA IDEVELOPMENT COMPANY, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, A'CORPORATION OF UTAH.

ALTERNATING ROTARY G'EAEING FOR WASHING-MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented na in rain.

Application filed December 2'7. 1811. Serial No. 683,185.

To all iii/10m it may concern:

Be it known that I, OTTO G. Prnirrnn, a citizen of the United States, and residing at Salt Lake City, in the county of Salt Lake and State of Utah', have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Alternating Rotary Gearing for Washing-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to driving gearing, and more particularly to driving" gearing for washing machines.

This invention as to some of its features is an improvement on my Patent No. 981,9i0, granted Jan. 17, 1911.

A driving gearing for Washing machines must possess certain characteristics which especially adapt it for driving the rotary member of such a machine. The rotary member generally consists of a drum, which is partially filled with clothes to be washed, and which runs in a casing containing water. This member must have its direction reversed at intervals, so as not to Wind up the clothes in lumps as would he caused by continuous motion in one direction. in view of the fact however that the member to be reversed has considerable weight especially when filled with clothes, difficulty has been experienced in constructing" a gearing which will drive the rotary member of a washing machine alternately in reverse directions Without causing excessive shocks or jars at the points of reversal.

One of the objects of this invention thereore is to construct a gearing which is aranged to drive a heavy driven member alernately in reverse directions without .hocks or g'ars at the point of reversal; which no be readily thrown into and out of'operation whether the prime mover or motor is in motion or stationary; pie in its construction, positive in its operation, and easily manipulated.

Another'object is to combine with the alternating rotary gearing a Wringer (111V: ing gearing which is arranged to drive the wringer shaftat will in either direction, and which 'wringer driving gearing is operated from and has its operating elements mounted on thctnme shaft as the a "sting rotary gearing.

which will be sim-' Further objects will appear from the detail description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in Whii1 Figure l is a section ontheline 'i--1 Fig.

2. Fig. 2 is a section on tlie line 2-2 Fig. 1,

and Fig. 3 is a detail of a part of the controlling means for the reversing gearing.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, 10 designates a washing machine casing an 11 adrum arranged to rotate therein in re-' verse directions and arranged to receive clothes to be washed. The washing machine construction is fully shown and described in my application Serial No. 568,155 filed of even date herewith.

The casing hody is supported in a pair of end frames one of which is shown i2. These end frames are preferably? malleable castings while the casing hotly is of sheet secured there ofhearmetal. The end frame 12 has to or cast integral therewith a series ingv lugs 13, i i and if). the legs 13 and forming bearings for a main drive l hereinafter referred to. 'A hraclret bolted to the lugs 13., it and forms caps for the hearing lugs and is. main drive shaft 17 is mounted in the hearing lugs 13 and 14 and has mounted thereon a gear 18 meshing with a oinion on motor shaft (not shown). A driven or drum sf" 19 is supported for rotation in hearings-on the end frame 12 and on the bracket 18 and has a connection with the drum 10 as frilly described in the application referred A pair of bevel gears 20 are iocsel r mounted on the driven shaft 19 and are arranged to he alternately" ci l the driven shaft h clutch mechanism new to i9, and each of the near their centers for Pic. tch shoe carrier havingarms tion surface 21. Each one of the clutch shoes 22 is provided at one of its free ends with a lug 26 having an adjusting screw 27.

1 661,384., filed Nov..20, 1911.

The driving shaft 17 has loosely mounted thereon a sleeve 33 mounted in the bearing lug 1e and having formed. thereon a bevel gear 34. meshing with the bevel gears 20 on the driven shaft. The sleeve has also formed thereon. a worm 35 meshing with a WOIIIL wheel 36 mounted on a shaft 37 in bearing lugs 38 on the frame 12 and. the

bracket 16- A. cam block 39 'is formed integral with the worm wheel 36 and is provided with a cam groove 40 engaged by a.

cam roll 41 on'one end of a lever 42 pivoted intermediate its ends on a lug 43 formed on the bracket 16. The other end of the the end frame lever 42 is provided with a fork 4% connected to the cone 32.

The sleeve 33 isconnected with and disconnected from the drive shaft 17 by means of a jaw clutch comprising a clutch member 4C5 splined on the shaft and having teeththereon engaging coiiperating teeth on the left hand end. of the sleeve. This clutch member is operated by a fork 4:6 slidingly mounted upon a shaft or rod 47 mounted to slide in bearing lugs 48 extending from the bracket 16. This .rod has rigidly mounted thereon two collars 49 and 50 respectively, and a spring 51 is mounted on the rod between the collar 50 and the fork 4 6. A col 1221*52 is adjustably secured to the rod 47 and is provided with a laterally extending pin 53 engaging a slot in anactuating lever 54 pivoted upon the end frame 12. This actuating lever is arranged to throw the jaw clutch into and out of operation. In order to hold the clutch in either of its adjusted positions, a lug 55 is secured to a bracket on 2 and forms stop shoulders 56 and 57 arranged to beengaged'by the lever 54. The lever is shown in position to hold the clutch engaged. In order' to throw out the clutch, the lever is moved to theleft. In order to do this it is first necessary to disengage the lever from the-stop shoulder 56, and for this purpose the lever is moved toward the observer, the lever itself being sufficiently elastic topermit this and also spring back behind the shoulder 57 when the clutch is disengaged.-

The operation'of the alternating rotary gearing is as follows: When the jaw clutch is engaged to clutch the sleeve 33 to the drive shaft, the bevel gears 20 will be rotated in opposite directions. As the sleeve 33 rotates the worm and wheel will operate to cause the cam on the wheel to slide the .cone on the driven shaft 19. The clutches on the driven shaft will thus be operated to alternately connect the bevel gears with the driven or drum shaft. The worm and wheel and the cam are so designed that the drum will be rotated through several revolutions and then reversed to be driven for several revolutions in the opposite direction. This mechanism therefore forms automatic mechanism for controlling the gearing so as to cause the driving shaft to automatically and reversely drive the driven shaft. The construction of the controlling mechanism and its positive action causes a positive operation of the clutches, and since these clutches are ofthe friction type and arranged to enand while the jaws are opposite one another,

the actuation of the lever 54 will bringthe 51, permitting however the movement of the actuating lever to its limit and behind the stop shoulder 56. As soon as the shaft" 17 starts to rotate (as by starting the motor) the jaws will automatically snap into engagement when the recesses of .one clutch sleeve coincide with the jaws of the other clutch sleeve.

The wringer is generally designated by 60, and 61 designates the wringer shaft. This shaft has mounted thereon a bevel gear 62 meshing with a bevel gear 63 on a cross shaft 64 mountedin bearing lugs 65 and 66 on the end frame 12. A bevel. gear 67 is mounted on the lowerend of the shaft 64- and meshes with two beveljgears 68 loosely mounted upon the drive shaftli. A jaw clutch member or sleeve 69 is splined upon thedrive shaft 17 and is provided withjaws jaws in engagement and compress the spring arranged to engage with coiiperating 'aws upon the bevel gears 68. A clutch fork l) is 'loosely mounted upon a shaft or rod 71 slid- 'mglv mounted in hearings in the lugs 13 and- '14. This rod has rigidly mounted thereon two collars 72 and :73 respectively, and springs 74: and 7 5 are mounted upon this rod,one between the collar 72 and the fork, and the other between the collar 73 and the fork; A vertical shaft 76 having an operating handle 77 is mounted for rotation in bearing lugs 78 and 79 formed on the end frame 12.

adapted to be engaged by a spring latch Si.

mounted upon the end frame 12,

The connection of the drive shaft w th one or the other of the gears (lS'will cause the drive shaft to rotate the \vringer shaft in one or another direction. The controlling means, described above, for causing such a connection of the gears, is so constructed that the wringer shaft may be driven in one or another direction at the will of the op erator. In the drawings, the mechanism is shown in neutral position at which time both 68 are loose on the shaft. If the handle 77 and the shaft- 76 are now rotated through a quarter of a revolution in one direction the wringer shaft will be driven in one direction, while if the handle and the shaft are turned from neutral position in the opposite direction, the direction of rotation of the wringer shaft will be reversed. It will be noted that the controlling mechanism has two neutral positions, namely one in which the crank pin 81 isin the position shown in Fig. :2, and another position in which the crank pin will be diametrirally opposite. The shaft 76 can, however be turned from either neutral position in the desired direction to cause the wringer shaft to be driven in the. desired direction. it will also be noted that when the shaft is in either of its clutch engagingpositions, the clutch an be thrown to neutral position by turning the shaft in either direction. This construction is of great advantage in washing machines, which are operated by unskilled operators, and in which the operator is lia bleto become excited (when the clothes are tangled or caught) and forget in which way the handle should be turned to throw out the wringer shaft. it-h this construction however the operator is not required to remember this, since the shaft handle can be moved in either direction to neutral position. The latch 84: will hold the shaft in any of its adjusted positions.

The handle 77 can be moved to its limit to throw in the clutch irrespective of the position of the clutchmember. This is due to the fact that the connection between the handle and the clutch member 69 is a yielding one (through the springs 74 and 75). Thus if the handle 77 is operated to throw the clutch member 69 in while the shaft 17 is stationary and while the jaws of the clutch member are opposite the cooperating jaws on the bevel gears, the clutch member 69 will be moved until the jaws thereon engage the aws on the bevel gear and further movement of the handle will serve to compress one of the springs 7-1 or 75. As soon as the shaft 17 starts to revolve, or revolve sufiiciently to alinc the jaws on the clutch member with the recesses on the bevel gear, the. part will snag together under the action of the compressed spring.

The automatically mechanism for the washing machine drum, and the manually controlled driving mechanism for the \vringer have their driving elements mounted upon the same driving shaft so that the parts will constitute t0- gethcr a condensed structure. In washing machines while the drum is operating the wringer will generally be stationary and vice versa. In view of this fact the 18 and the shaft need only be designed of a strength sntlicient to operate one of these driven members.

It is obvious that arious changes may be made in the details of construction without departing from this invention, and it is therefore to be understood that this invention is not to be limited to the specific construction shown and described.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed is:

1. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a drive shaft and a driven shaft, f a bevcl gear on said drive shaft, a pair c bevel gear on said driven shaft, a sleeve loosely mounted on said drive shaft and connected with said first bevel gear, mechanism. including a member connected with said sleeve, for clutching said second bevel. gears alternately to said driven shaft, to cause said drive shaft to automatically drive said driven shaft in reverse directions, and means for connecting and disconnecting said sleeve to and from said drive shaft, whereby the operation of said driven shaft may be controlled without affecting the operation of said drive shaft.

2-. ln a machine. of the class described, the combination with a drive shaft and a driven shaft, of a bevel gear on said drive shaft, :1 pair of bevel gears on said driven shaft, a sleeve loosely mounted on said drive shaft and having said first bevel'gcar integral therewith, mechanism, including" a worm integral with said sleeve, for clutching said second bevel gears alternately with said driven shaft, constructed to cause said drive shaft to automatically drive said driyen shaft in reverse directions, and means for connecting and disconnecting said sleeve to and from said drive shaft, whereby the operation of said driven shaft may be controlled without affccting the operation of aid drive shaft. v

In a machine of the class described, the combination with a drive shaft and'a driven controlled driving said gears, constructed to cause said drive shaft to automatically drive said driven Sllilfbln reverse directions, and a clutch on L0 said drive'shaft positioned between the bevel gears on the driven shaft and constructed to connect and disconnect said first bevel gear to and from said drive shaft.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

OTTO G. PFEIFFER.

Witnesses: I

HENRY M HERTEL, MARIE E. PAUCK. 

